Tag Archives: City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito

Mayor Bill de Blasio with other elected officials and speakers at an announcement at the Alexandria Science Research Center in Kips Bay. (Pictured) Dr. Vicki Sato, Dr. Harold Varmus, President of the Economic Development Corporation Maria Torres-Springer, Teeba Jihad, Mayor Bill de Blasio, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, State Senator Liz Krueger, State Senator Brad Hoylman and Assembly Member Brian Kavanagh (Photo by Michelle Deal Winfield)

By Michelle Deal Winfield

On Tuesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled a plan that he says will create 16,000 new jobs in life sciences and bio-engineering in New York City.

He made the announcement at the Alexandria Science Research Center in Kips Bay, alongside local elected officials.

The mayor paid homage to former Mayor Bloomberg saying, “We are taking a page from the former mayor’s playbook. Mayor Bloomberg diversified investments to help set up the Cornell Tech Center on Roosevelt Island. It worked. The city will invest in emerging companies to create innovative approaches that will lead to improvements in the health industry. We decided to look for spaces on the East Side in Manhattan and in Long Island City.”

Maria Torres-Springer, president of NYC Economic Development Corporation said the project is expected to generate 9,000 jobs in the life sciences.

“Seven thousand new jobs will be created in related fields like marketing, advertising and training,” she said. “There will also be 7,500 jobs in construction to set up labs.”

With the cost to protect President-elect Donald Trump and his family in New York City reported to be $1 million a day, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and Council Member Dan Garodnick are calling on Trump to get the federal government to reimburse the city.

Garodnick, whose Council district includes Trump Tower, where the president-elect lives and works, and Mark-Viverito have also launched a change.org petition, which already has about 1,500 signatures.

As the petition notes: “At an estimated $1 million per day, protecting you, your family and your home at Trump Tower will total over one billion dollars during your four-year term. This represents an extraordinary financial burden for New York City taxpayers.”

Councilwoman Rosie Mendez and Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito at a stop along the Follow Me Friday shopping crawl (Photo by Maria Rocha-Buschel)

By Maria Rocha-Buschel

In a bid to help the businesses in the East Village that that been destroyed or damaged by the gas explosion at the end of March that killed two, a few elected officials led neighborhood residents on a small business crawl last Friday.

The event was part of an initiative known as Follow Me Friday, which was launched by City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito in 2014 and which the speaker uses as a way to communicate directly with constituents. She worked with Councilmember Rosie Mendez’s office for the East Village crawl in order to bring attention to the businesses on Second Avenue.

“Despite the horrible tragedy that occurred in this neighborhood recently, the East Village remains a vibrant and lively destination in New York City,” Mark-Viverito said. “The whole Council stands with the residents and business owners of this community in encouraging all New Yorkers to visit and enjoy all that the East Village has to offer.”

Businesses along the route included Moishe’s Bake Shop, New Yorker Market, Café Mocha, Bar Virage, Himalayan Vision, Enz’s and Jimmy’s No. 43.
Mariann Marlow, the owner of the clothing store Enz’s, said that it’s been hard since the store was closed for two months after the explosion to do repairs and restock the inventory, most of which was destroyed, but since reopening, hasn’t had any problems getting business.

“People couldn’t wait for me to reopen,” she said after multiple prospective customers came into the store within five minutes of each other, looking for items she used to have in stock before they were temporarily closed.